Homemade Caramel Sauce from Sweetened Condensed Milk
from https://www.eaglebrand.com/

A favorite caramel sauce for topping ice cream, desserts, such as bread pudding, pancakes; as a dip, for instance dipping pieces of apples or Mexican churros, for making Millionaire's Shortbread, a shortbread topped with caramel and chocolate. This caramel not technically “caramel”.. maybe more along the lines of a dulce de leche.

A popular recipe for making caramel from sweetened condensed milk included cooking a can of unopened sweetened condensed milk fully submerged in a large pot (1" above the can) and boiling for 3 hours. Eagle Brand, a leading producer of condensed milk, says this is not a safe method as the can is not designed to withstand high temperatures: “For safety reasons, we do not recommend heating a can of our condensed milk, opened or unopened.” Also, a can with a pull-tab lid can easily explode open from the prssure build-up inside the can. Instead, Eagle Brand give this recipe for making the Caramel Sauce:

Recipe for Homemade Caramel Sauce

1 (14 oz.) can Eagle Brand® Sweetened Condensed Milk (Homemade Sweetened Condensed Milk, not sure how this would work)

OVEN METHOD

HEAT oven to 425°F. Pour sweetened condensed milk into 9-inch pie plate. Cover with foil. Place pie plate in larger shallow pan. Fill larger pan with about 1/2-inch hot water to surround pie plate.

BAKE 1 3/4 to 2 hours or until thick and caramel-colored. Carefully remove from oven; remove pie plate from shallow pan. Whisk caramel until smooth.

Cool 20 minutes before serving. Store any leftover caramel in refrigerator. Bring to room temperature or heat until warm to serve.

STOVETOP METHOD

POUR sweetened condensed milk into top of double boiler. Place over boiling water and cover. Simmer 1 1/2 to 2 hours over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until thick and caramel-colored.

REMOVE from heat. Whisk caramel until smooth. Cool 20 minutes before serving. Store any leftover caramel in refrigerator. Bring to room temperature or heat until warm to serve.

Do not heat in can.